Women are 'more likely to donate a kidney than receive one'

In Britain and the US, the number of people choosing to donate an organ anonymously is growing year on year.

Altruistic living donors do not have a recipient in mind but volunteer to donate a kidney to someone who is need of a transplant.

In September, the NHS announced more than 500 people had helped save the life of stranger by sacrificing their organ while still alive.

Changes in the law eleven years ago made it possible for individuals to become living donors to people in need of a transplant whom they do not know and have never met – a behaviour known as ‘non-directed altruistic donation.’

In years past, willing altruistic donors were often turned away because hospitals assumed that they were mentally unwell.

It can be hard to understand why a person would sacrifice an internal organ for someone they may never meet.